Summary

The objective of this project is to develop and implement a real-time adaptive control system for corridor management. The proposed control strategy is based on a mathematical representation that describes the behavior of the real-life processes (traffic flow in corridor networks and actuated controller operation). In formulating the optimal control problem, we have restricted our attention to control of only those parameters commonly found in modern actuated controllers (e.g., Type 170 and 2070 controllers). By doing this, we hope to ensure that the procedures developed herein can be implemented with minimal adaptation of existing field devices and the software that controls their operation.

The development and adoption of adaptive control procedures for signalized intersections have been hampered by two fundamental impediments to their successful implementation: those that are theoretically sound invariably have been specified in terms of parameters and control options that simply are not within the lexicon of control devices and typically involve complex mixed-integer-programming formulations that do not lend themselves to real-time solution, and those that do manipulate parameters employed in modern actuated control devices are based on highly simplified approximations and simplifications to both control response and traffic measurement. In the approach taken herein, we avoid these pitfalls by formulating the optimal control problem for a signalized intersection in terms of parameters (phase maximums and gap settings) featured in any modern actuated controller, based on a theoretically consistent model of stochastic traffic flow. By framing the integrated control problem as an optimal signal control problem, the problem can be solved as a large-scale mixed-integer linear programming problem describing the optimal performance of dual-ring, 8-phase, variable cycle (and phase) controllers. The effectiveness and efficiency of this adaptive control strategy derives from its consistency with the mathematical model.

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